Part 4
The Five ran in Olesya's direction. They were amidst a sea of Vermintide. When the fighting began, the two forces collided with a thunderclap. The churn of blood and steel did not stop for a while. Slaverat lines broke against Markus's shield and smashed before Bardin's hammer. Sienna wrought flames from beneath the feet of many rats, their screams wailed across the air. Stormvermin, black rats, were kept at bay by Kerillian's spear.
"Let more blackrats come. I've a spear for them." Kerillian laughed.
Victor fired bolt after bolt silencing gutter runners, packrats and other vermin. But this was Clan Moulder's lair, Eshin assassins were not dominant here. The cheap fodder was thrown at the Ubersreik Five first. Then after waves of blood and gore the crew moved forward in their formation hesitating only when the howling began.
"Weapons up, it's the tougher vermin!" Victor assessed.
Wolf Rats ascended in a flash of white fur, on the group gnawing and slashing. They too fell before The Five. Flayerkin, Throtlings and innumerable Skavenslaves attacked relentlessly.
"Keep to the path, you need to climb the baluster ahead." Olesya said.
Taking light damage as teeth here and there found purchase.
"Markus, I'm not impressed by scars." Sienna warned.
"You think we can be stopped? Go ahead and bloody try!" Markus screamed out to the crew to renew their resolve. At the base of the baluster was a Great Pox Rat and on top of his back was one of the Master Moulder's. A formidable foe – a commander of Hells Pit.
"As I am the comet! The impure will burn!" Victor said, breaking form and rushing at the rat Lord firing off shots with his crossbow killing the Pox Rat and thrusting his rapier in the Lord's head.
"That showed the wazzok!"
"We shall not be overcome! Now run Bardin." Victor said as they caught up with him.
Not even a moment passed and the crew moved forward. The engineers that built the wooden stairs gave little thought for safety, as it swayed with each sword slash or parried blade. Sienna had to fight the urge to raise it to the ground. They kept moving forward, fingers tiring from repeated blows and swings.
"Can you hear the rat ogre?" Kerillian said.
And sure enough at the summit there it was.
"For Lileath!" Kerillian notched four arrows and let them fly at the beasts head. But this was no normal rat ogre this was Clan Moulder's rat ogre. A Rat Ogre Bonebreaker. The arrows did little to it.
"Like mountain smoke." Bardin said lighting a fuse on a bomb and throwing it at the rat ogre engulfing it in smoke. He then smashed his hammer onto the creature's paw. While the Ogre was wailing about Bardin got behind it and with all his might pushed it towards the staircase and down it tumbled.
"Now, that's how Cousin Okri used to do it." Bardin celebration was cut short by The Five moving on. Onwards. They made it to an old bridge.
"Get to the end of this bridge, hurry before IT moves away" Olesya said.
"As a Dwarf I have never seen a bridge move before."
The fighting here was much less intense as enemies could only come from two directions. Soon they made it to the end of the bridge only to see it had been broken with no way down. The horde got close to them.
"You will fear my trail of flame!" Sienna shouted exploding in a fiery rage and leapt forward in a line that cut across the bridge; cutting the horde off buying them some time.
A figure stepped through the flame - untouched. It was a rat that had a shroud over his horned head, concealing all within except red eyes. The rat stood tall and almost stoic and stared them down.
Olesya screamed "JUMP!"
They all jumped without even thinking. The fall was cut short by the soft landing, mere feet from the bridge edge. The floor was soft and even jittered. Giant horns protruded out here and there. Suddenly the floor they were on rose above the bridge and higher still. All save Kerillian grabbed onto a horn.
"Lumberfoots." Kerillian muttered.
"Climb IT to the top!" Olesya said.
"The top of what?" Markus asked.
"The Hell Pit Abomination!" Olesya replied.
The grotesque beast towered over all. Markus looked down to where the Hooded Figure was, but he vanished. Just then thousands of Skaven jumped on the beast to get to them as the Abomination walked around the cave looking for food. Each footstep was itself an earthquake and presented a challenge staying on.
"See them fall, darlings! Brings a smile to my face!" Sienna said pointing to falling rats.
The Five ran towards IT's head. The mutated beast's skin gave easy purchase to Bardin and Kerillian but the others had a hard time. The abomination had many mutated heads and limbs of massive creatures that made plenty of plateaus. IT's external bones and spikes larger than barges proved hard to maneuver. After what felt like an eternity they made it to a large muscular plateau.
"Right at the end, you five hurry." Olesya said.
"I am too old for this darlings." Sienna exhaled.
"Keep going, drengbarazi! Almost there!" Bardin encouraged.
A glowing orange portal appeared in the distance as The Five ran full tilt. The sea of vermin not far behind. The portal was fifty feet away when the Hooded Figure appeared behind them again. This time he was angry, conjuring a massive green flame. As He brought his hand down the flames followed and cut into the Abominations head narrowly missing The Five. The Abomination thrashed in pain as a river of blood welled up from the cut. The Hooded Figure simply raised his green flames again and brought them down.
"Scatter! Don't make a juicy target for the flames!" Markus said breathlessly.
And again the flames narrowly missed The Five. The portal was close now, with Markus trailing. On the fourth green flame attack the Abominations body went limp and fell forward. And odd sight for the old soldier. Standing vertically, needing to make his way forward to the portal as the ground rushed ever so closer. First in it was Kerillian then Bardin and Victor followed by Sienna and as the body hit the ground Markus fell in. At that moment the Hooded Figure's final attack landed on the portal. On the other side however Markus only suffered singed hair.
Moments later when they all caught their breath.
"Well the citadel is not in that direction." Saltzpyre said.
"Let's not follow children in the wastes again." Markus replied.
"Let's go back let's go kill that Dawi-Zharr, that Chaos Dwarf!" Bardin said out loud.
"Tzeentch must have wanted us to see all that," the Elf was silent after that.
And finally Victor spoke, "get some rest our next pilgrimage awaits."
"Pretty sure Kerillian got the most kills on that one ey."
"Aye and headshots and specials and probably did the most damage too."
"Who's counting that anyway there's no way we were able to keep accurate count during all that."
Fin.
YOU ARE READING
FanFic Vermintide - One Journey Through The Wastes
FantasyMy submission to the r/Vermintide's Annual VerminArt Contest 2021. This is an extended version as we had a word count cap. All names and places are trademarks of Games Worshop and characters used were created By Fatshark Game Studio for the game Ver...